TransPennine Express: Train farce another failure of privatisation?

The TransPennine Express ‘service’ has been taken into government hands, another privatisation failure, it seems.

I can speak from personal experience that the TransPennine Express service was truly awful.

‘A bus on wheels,’ as my dad used to say and, some of them literally were, a few years ago.

TransPennine Express

TPE will be nationalised after customer complaints of poor service and cancelled trains.

The government will now run the service which covers Manchester and Liverpool and other key northern cities and runs to Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland.

In January and February about a quarter of its services were cancelled, proof of its shocking service.

Privatisation

Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside Kim Johnson tweeted: “The failed experiment of rail privatisation is falling apart for all to see. It’s time we brought the whole rail network under public ownership and control.”

The failed experiment of rail privatisation is falling apart for all to see.

It's time we brought the whole rail network under public ownership and control.https://t.co/DEChA6xegk

— Kim Johnson MP (@KimJohnsonMP) May 11, 2023

Can govt save it?

Maybe not!

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said taking TransPennine under state control was “not a silver bullet and will not instantaneously fix a number of challenges being faced”.

Criticism

Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport sec, said: “This endless cycle of shambolic private operators failing passengers shows the Conservatives’ rail system is fundamentally broken.”

Also, Andy Burnham, Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, said privatisation has “seen fares shoot up, and the standard of services go down, and the companies in the end are not accountable to the paying public”.

East coast

it echoes the failure of the east coast line after a total failure of privatisation.

At the time the RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “Three private operators (GNER, NXEC, VTEC) have failed on East Coast with bids promising £1.3bn, £1.4bn and £3.3bn respectively. Privatisation has been a total failure.”

Reactions

1.

TransPennine Express nationalised for catalogue of failings & poor service.

How much of the public subsidy will TPE return for providing shoddy services?

End the privatisation scam – Bring the entire rail network into public ownership.https://t.co/c9tNlLncgy

— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) May 11, 2023

2.

TransPennine Express loses its contract due to poor performance.

Another failure for privatised railways. Yet again the state has to step in to clean up the mess.

Privatisation has failed. It’s time for public ownership.

— Jon Trickett MP (@jon_trickett) May 11, 2023

3.

TransPennine Express is to be nationalised after customer complaints of poor service & cancelled trains.

A good time to mention that the East Coast line in public ownership for 6 years made £1bn for the Treasury & had customer satisfaction rates of 94%.

Nationalised rail works.

— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) May 11, 2023

4.

After utterly abysmal services which have been a regular fixture of my mailbag for Warrington North commuters relying on them, I'm pleased to see TransPennine Express services are *finally* being taken under state control at the end of the month. https://t.co/ngBG9RRG1R

— Charlotte Nichols (@charlotte2153) May 11, 2023

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